Negotiators from the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group say they have agreed a temporary ceasefire with the Colombian government, the BBC reports.

It is the first time the two sides have agreed a ceasefire in more than 50 years of conflict.

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Eight people were arrested in connection with the deadly explosion at an upscale mall in Colombia, the country’s National Police said.

Three people were killed and 11 others injured on June 17 when an explosive device rocked a mall in the tourist district of Colombia’s capital Bogota.

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Colombia’s government and National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas on Thursday announced they have agreed to deescalate fighting.

To “protect non-combatants and the civilian population from the effects of the armed conflict,” both sides agreed to “decrease the intensity of the fighting,” according to a joint statement.

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Colombia’s leftwing ELN rebels have said they are ready to start formal peace talks with the government and resolve issues that have so far stymied the negotiations announced in March.

The ELN’s announcement comes two days after Colombia’s center-right government and the Marxist Farc rebel group signed a peace deal to end a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and once took the Andean country to the brink of collapse.

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The Colombian government and the Farc rebel group have signed a historic peace accord, putting an end to more than five decades of conflict.

Both sides have agreed to work together to address social exclusion, to deliver justice to the victims of the conflict and build a stable and enduring peace.

The announcement was made in the Cuban capital, Havana, where peace talks were launched in November 2012.

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